Chapter Text
"come on, suguru, we're going to be late!"
geto hurriedly finished tying his shoe and stood up. "alright, alright, lets go then. since when were you one to care so much about being late to class anyway?"
"since you were a dumbass who couldn't keep his shoes tied," gojo replied, "at which time it became the focal point of my entire being."
"you're such a weirdo," geto huffed, adjusting his bag as they half jogged towards their class building. "lets just go, i don't feel like getting yelled at again today anyway."
as they were now in their last year of high school and guaranteed admission to their university of choice contingent on continued good grades, geto and gojo had been trying to almost force each other to stay on track and not get complacent with their last few rounds of exams and school work. after a few months, though, the task had been proving rather difficult considering that both of them were very tired and very eager for a break.
that particular friday had been a particularly trying day for them both. geto was barely clinging to passing grades in math and physics and gojo was having more and more difficulty staying awake during history lectures. presently, they were having lunch and gojo was blaming their basic history teachers appearance for his inability to stay alert.
"i mean come on, if you’re going to stand in front of a bunch of people and expect them to actually pay attention and listen to you the least you could do is not wear fucking polyester," he said, picking at his food as if it too had committed the crime of wearing a cheap, blended fabric.
"do you know how much teachers get paid, satoru?" geto asked.
"okay yeah, but decent clothing is just not as expensive as people act like it is AND its so much more comfortable! AND it lasts longer! its a better long term choice that ultimately costs less when you factor in having to purchase new clothes when cheaper ones wear out and - "
"satoru, if someone has to choose between paying more for a shirt that will last longer and whether or not they can afford rent and food for the month, they're going to choose rent and food, every single time," geto said, pulling the elastic band out of his long black hair to fix his bun. "you seriously come off so sheltered sometimes," he chided, finger-combing his hair as he pulled it back up.
gojo watched him with a distracted expression. “i…what?” he asked.
geto raised his eyebrows. the way gojo was staring at him was making him feel like he was being x-rayed. “i said you come off like a sheltered rich boy. which of course, you are.”
gojo blinked for a moment. "what, you want me to apologize for my family being systematically killed off when i was five so i got an inheritance a little early?" he said, seemingly having snapped back to reality.
"you know most people don't grow up to inherit quite that much money from their families, right?" geto said, tossing a crumpled up napkin at gojo's forehead.
"oh whatever," he said, swatting it away.
at that moment, geto's phone buzzed. "oh look, it's your mom," gojo said, looking pointedly over the rims of his sunglasses. "must be nice."
"would you shut the hell up," geto said as he picked up. "hi mom, whats...?" he listened quietly for a moment. "well that's great, are you sure you don't still want me to come home for the weekend? no? are you sure? even if - no, its not a big - okay. alright. well i'll still come next weekend anyway since i already have a train ticket. okay. yeah. okay. i love you too, mom. bye."
"your dad's alright then?" gojo asked, now looking genuinely concerned.
"yeah, i guess they took his cast off a week early since the bone in his leg is healing better than they expected it to," geto said, putting his phone into his pocket. "so my mom told me they're just going to wait on clearing out the attic until next weekend when i get there so he can try and just get some normal walking practice in tomorrow and sunday instead."
"that's great," gojo said sincerely. "he was really hurt, and i know you've been worrying about him a lot."
geto gave a small nod. "yeah. thanks." he watched as gojo packed up his lunch box, not really paying attention, dwelling for a moment on concern for his parents.
"hey," gojo said. "suguru. you still in there?"
gojo was now standing next to the table, looking at him expectantly.
"wha - yes - yeah, sorry; yeah, let's go," geto said hastily. "sorry, i - i spaced out."
gojo looked him up and down as geto stood up and gathered his things. "just means you're a good son, right?"
"what does?" geto asked as he shoved his things into his bag.
"worrying about them so much," gojo said. "you're a good son who cares a lot."
"i guess," geto said as they started to walk back towards the school building.
"well, if you still want to, you got any genre requests for tonight?" gojo said, trying to lighten the mood a little. "today is friday."
geto looked at his watch. "oh, shit, it is friday." just about every friday for the last two years, gojo had shown up at getos dorm at 8PM with a new DVD from blockbuster for them to half-watch, half-make-fun-of for the night. although he chalked it up to him just being stressed out about the upcoming transition to college, lately when they were alone like that together it seemed like gojo had been doing little things like sitting a bit closer to him than usual and falling asleep on him more often, which was starting to make geto feel embarrassed and confused.
"um, i don't know, what did we watch last week?" he asked, scratching the back of his neck, trying not to think about what it had felt like last friday when he had realized gojo was snoozing peacefully, cuddled up against his side.
"i think it was an action movie, but it was so boring i fell asleep," gojo said, making geto wonder if he was ever aware of the effect he had on other people. "do you want to go old school and do something nerdy like star wars this week? i know how much you love nerdy shit like star wars."
"well when you put it like that," geto said sarcastically. "i mean yeah, obviously i'm not going to object to fucking star wars, but would it kill you to have a shred of tact for other peoples interests?"
"you know, i think it actually might. but still, i'll just go see which ones they have and see if the straight girl who works there wants to give me a discount again," he said, "because she apparently has zero gaydar."
geto chuckled. "you're a menace, satoru," he said, attempting to ignore the awkward feeling akin to jealousy that cropped up in the pit of his stomach at the idea of gojo even pretending to flirt with someone else.
"that i may be, but at least i can get us cheap movie rentals," he said with a shrug. "either way, i'll head over there after classes and see you at 8."
"okay, see you later." geto watched him walk away for a second, trying to push down the sudden flare of anxiety he was feeling at the idea of gojo coming over. he had spent the last two years looking forward to friday evenings every week because of it, but recently the idea of being alone with gojo had been making him feel nervous. what if gojo leaned onto his shoulder again? what if gojo fell asleep on him again? what if geto liked it too much?
geto exhaled hard and turned to head to his history elective, wishing he could pretend he didn't want his best friend to cuddle with him all night while they ignored a movie.
unfortunately for him, by the midpoint of empire strikes back, gojo was already leaning into geto's side, half-asleep, and geto was trying much harder than he felt he should have had to to resist the urge to pull him in closer. he felt slightly intoxicated by whatever citrus scented product gojo had in his soft, silver hair and just as he was sleepily starting to consider pressing his cheek against it, gojo suddenly sat up and started to ask, "hey, do you want to get some - " he stopped and creased his eyebrows. "why are you looking at me like that?"
geto panicked and felt his face flush. what kind of expression was even on his face?! "nothing, i just...thought you had something in your hair," he lied quickly, wishing he could have thought of a remotely more believable cover.
"oh? i’ll go check in the mirror," gojo said, still looking slightly suspicious and moving to stand up.
"no, it’s um - its gone," geto fumbled, hating himself for being so obvious. "what were you going to say?" he prompted, scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably, hoping a topic change would distract gojo from how awkward he was being.
"hmm…i honestly don’t even remember now," gojo admitted, lifting his arms up to stretch, exposing just enough of his navel that geto felt the flush on his face get hotter. "knowing me i’ll probably remember in ten minutes or something."
geto stared at the tv, taking nothing in, struggling desperately to pay attention to the spaceships on the screen and not dwell on how cute gojos exposed tummy apparently was.
"hey, how come you always wear your hair up?" gojo asked. geto felt his heart rate go up as gojo reached over and gently pulled the elastic band out of his bun. "whats the point in having so much if it's just tied back all the time?"
geto prayed his face wasn’t giving away how nervous he felt as his hair spilled down over his shoulders and down his back. "i - i guess it just gets in - my face a lot when its down," he said, faltering as gojo started twirling a piece around his finger.
"you put so much effort into taking care of it, but you can’t see how nice and shiny it is when its tied back like that. you should wear it down more often," gojo said playfully, still fiddling with a piece of it. "you look good like this."
for a prolonged moment they just stared at each other, the movie they had barely watched the only source of sound in the room.
"you’re my best friend, suguru," gojo said, giving him a shrewd look. "can i ask you something?"
geto nodded. "yeah," he said breathlessly.
"have you ever been in love?"
geto couldn’t look away, even though he felt like gojos blue-eyed stare was boring a hole straight through to his soul. "i don’t…i don’t know. why, have you?"
gojo paused. "you know, i didn’t think so, but a few months ago i read this really dumb news article, if you could even call it that, written by some old lady talking about how she fell in love with her best friend and then they went on to spend the rest of their lives together or whatever, and i just thought god, that is so stupid! i mean, what kind of idiot would fall in love with their best friend? why would you ever take a risk like that? what if it didn’t work out and it ruined everything forever?" he finally dropped the small piece he had been twirling to run his hand down the long, black curtain of hair hanging down getos back, slowly combing his fingers through it. geto felt as if his heart had stopped. "but even still, after i read that i couldn’t stop thinking about the idea of it. and now im not sure anymore. maybe its not stupid. maybe if its the right person it could be as amazing as she said it is."
"yeah," geto said slowly, "maybe."
"and i just got stuck on the idea of you, and i thought man, if it was you i bet it would be so worth it. even if it was only a day i bet it would still be so worth it just to have gotten to be with you at all. and now i kind of feel like a crazy person because that’s all i can think about. like, i need to get another thing to stress out about before i go to bed every night because there’s always the chance that even just telling you this will just ruin everything." the corner of gojo’s mouth twitched. "but i probably could have kept that detail to myself."
geto had to laugh. "probably," he said, "but i think i love you anyway."
"you think?"
"well, i’ve never been in love before either," geto said, finally giving in to the impulse to reach out and pull gojo toward him by the hips, "so i can’t be totally sure. but yeah, i think so."
"can i tell you something else that i should probably keep to myself then?" gojo asked, swinging his leg across geto so that he was sitting in his lap.
geto felt like all the air had been sucked out of his lungs; all he could hear was his own pulse hammering in his ears. "please do."
"i’ve thought about what it would be like to kiss you a lot," he said, taking getos face in his hands. "i think probably a lot more than most people think about kissing their friends."
"uh-huh," geto agreed.
"do you wanna try that?"
"uh-huh," geto nodded fervently, tightening his grip on gojo’s hips.
gojo kissed him almost frantically, like he might just die if he didn’t, and geto almost whined when he pulled back to ask, "do you want to have sex?"
"really bad, yeah," geto said, pulling gojo back in as close as he could.
later, they were laying in getos bed, clothes thrown haphazardly on the floor, both still slightly in shock.
"hey, suguru. can i tell you one more thing?" gojo said.
"i mean, after that? yeah, i think you can probably tell me anything," geto replied, still trying to catch his breath.
"you know that venom sweater that you lost a while back?"
"oh my god did you find it?" geto asked, suddenly serious. "man that thing was my favorite; on top of how ridiculously expensive it was. do you know where it is?"
gojo almost looked guilty. "well, you'll be pleased to know that you didn’t actually lose it, you actually left it in my dorm a while ago and i might have, kind of, just…kept it," he admitted.
geto propped himself up on his elbow to look down at gojo. "so when i asked you if you’d seen it, because it was so very expensive, because it was so very limited edition, and thus is so very irreplaceable, and you said you had no idea, it was just in with your clothes this entire time?"
"i mean, it’s not always just sitting in there…"
"well i’ve sure never seen you wearing it," geto said, tucking his hair behind his ear. "so where else is it?"
gojo pursed his lips as if pretending to think. "i might sometimes, maybe, sometimes, use it as, you know…pajamas…"
"so you have been using my $400 ultra limited edition venom sweater as pajamas for the last how many months, and are only telling me now because you think i won’t get upset with you because we just had sex?"
“you paid $400 for that thing?!”
“satoru - ”
gojo raised his eyebrows inquisitively. "…..yes?"
geto sighed and flopped back down defeatedly. "i absolutely hate ever telling you that you’re right, but unfortunately in this case you are," he conceded, staring up at the ceiling. "i am way too…everything right now to be mad at you."
gojo reached out to hold his hand. "good, because i figured if i told you under any other circumstances you would probably murder me," gojo said, laughter in his voice. "or at the very least think i was a weirdo or something."
"looks like you’ll live to see another day for now then," geto said, pulling gojos hand up to kiss his knuckles, "but i'm definitely going to want it back."
"oh no, thats boyfriend property now, sorry, you’ve already sealed that deal - "
"i know you’re joking, but on the off chance that you aren’t, no."
gojo smiled at him. "but you will be my boyfriend now?"
geto turned to meet his gaze. "yeah, i think i can do that."
"cool, 'cause i really meant everything i said before, as embarrassing as it is to admit to having actual feelings," gojo said. geto couldn't recall ever seeing him look so genuinely vulnerable before. "but i guess i can forget about that with you."
geto decided then that he liked sweet, vulnerable gojo and wanted to keep seeing him. "yeah, me too."